Shiite Muslims observe Ashura

Iran

Iranian Shiites cover themselves with mud during Ashura, marking the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, at the city of Bijar, west of the capital Tehran, Iran, Nov. 14, 2013.

Hussein, one Shiite Islam's most beloved saints, was killed in a 7th century battle at Karbala, Iraq.

Credit: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

Lebanon

Shiite Muslim men bleed as they gash their foreheads with swords and beat themselves during a ceremony marking Ashura in Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, Nov. 14, 2013.

Shiite Muslims observe Ashura, a day of mourning which means "tenth" in Arabic, through rituals such as martyrdom reenactments and self-flagellation.

Most observers wear black and march through the streets chanting and hitting themselves in the chest and some still make small gashes to their heads to ritually punish their bodies.

Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Afghanistan

Afghan Shiites beat themselves with chains and blades in a ritual ahead of the Ashura holiday outside the Abul Fazel Shrine in Kabul, Nov. 10, 2013.

At this shrine two years ago during the same celebration, a suicide bomber killed scores of worshippers.

Credit: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

Lebanon

A Lebanese Shiite smokes a cigarette as he bleeds from his head from self-inflicted wounds, during Ashura in the southern market town of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, Nov. 14, 2013.